The automobile industry is trying to increase their gas mileage!

Cars are everywhere. Cars are everything. But there has been a decline in car buyers, and an increase in bike buyers because people are trying to be more energy efficient. therefor the automobile industry is trying hard to increase their gas mileage, so people will want to buy their cars. They’re making cars more environmentally friendly. As we all know, Green is in!

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In the last year, Barack Obama decided to increase the mileage requirements. They are trying to have an increase of 54.5 miles per gallon by the year of 2025. Currently the numbers are at 27 miles per gallon. They are trying to get the numbers to be double to what it is. Very Hard task, but hopefully doable. Obama wants to minimize how much fuel we are using, and make it more cost efficient for the public!

Small cars are cool now. They have created gas electric cars and an awesome battery. The people are loving it! The New York Times informed us that 6 out of 10 best selling cars in the United states are little cars. One of the most popular models is the Ford F-Series, which has a very high mileage, and an engine that is six cylinders!

There is a goal that Obama is trying to achieve, it is to help cars realize that they need to create cars with lower emissions, because our mother nature matters the most. It will be hard, but at the rate that our country is developing technology (and other countries, of course) we will be able to do so!

The Kia Rio 2013, has started to offer the start-stop engine which works in a way where the engine is shut down if it is not being used, thus decreasing fuel usage. It used to be just for Hybrid cars, but it is not for far more than Hybrids!

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Variable valve timing is used to maximize your fuel efficiency and the performance of your car. Continuously Variable Transmissions, also known as CVT allow the engine to be working at the most fuel efficient RPM when dealing with a lot of different speeds. Some cars that are using CVTs, are the Infiniti JX, Nissan Altima and the Subaru Outback.

Shuttered Panels in the grille are also becoming quiet popular in cars, such as the Cadillac ATS, Dodge Dart and the Ford escape. This allows air to be regulated throughout the car in a more efficient way, according to the speed you are driving and the driving conditions on the road.

Some other ways to reduce fuel consumption while getting the utmost importance, is to buy a car that will shut down certain cylinders when it is moving.  Putting the gas right to the combustion chamber at certain amounts is known as fuel injection, which has become popular also.Hybrids are also experiencing changes because they need to keep up with the competition. According the the Forbes website, the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Toyota Prius are now plug-in hybrids, and General Motors is trying to use smaller motors and battery packs.

2008 Ford Escape Hybrid

 

Julia Pyper makes a great comment on other ways of making cars better! don’t only focus on the fuel, batteries, and other traditional parts. we should also focus on the steel side panels and the rooftop! Lightweight materials can make the efficiency also better. If the weight is decreased by 10%, the fuel economy will have a domino affect and will get better from 6%-8%. This can be very cost-effective.Instead of Steel, lets use aluminum! safety will not be jeopardized. Think about that.

 

>source http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/carmakers-back-strict-new-rules-for-gas-mileage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/08/30/10-ways-automakers-are-helping-you-spend-less-on-gasoline/

http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/09/27/2

 

 

 

 

Newton’s Law!

The Objective of this class was to study Newton’s second law and energy. When we tried to do the project with the weights the computer was not responding to the technology.

So we were given numbers that already existed.

Speed(RPM) Battery Discharge( rrMass(kg)) Power Level(%) Time(s) Acceleration(RPM/s) height Potential Energy
113.889 0.25 100 1.98 57.51964 0.275 0.67375
74.36472 0.25 80 2.23 33.34741 0.275 0.67375
45.89059 0.25 60 3.857 11.898 0.275 0.67375
14.798 0.25 40 12.558 1.178373 0.275 0.67375
21.50856 0.21 40 8.454 2.544187 0.275 0.56595
43.85536 0.17 40 4.093 10.71472 0.275 0.45815
47.20591 0.13 40 3.746 12.60168 0.275 0.35035
50.20959 0.09 40 3.658 13.72597 0.275 0.24255

Later we made graphs comparing mass and acceleration

 

And then power level and acceleration

 

And last but not least, Mass and Potential energy

(the graph’s are not showing up when i copy and paste them…)

It would have been more fun to do the actual project with the machine, but you can’t always rely on technology.

 

Until Next time,

V

Lego Cars in a Science Class!

We spent a total of 2 class working with lego cars that are attached to the computer and given commands by the computer!

The first class we had to create the car from scratch by looking at instructions! I think we did a great job!

The Final Product
The Final Product

After we had to connect the car with cords to the computer. Our passenger Manuelo was very excited for the ride!

A ruler was placed to measure the distance for the time of a second and at speeds of 75, 20, 50, 60 and 120.

The computer told us that at the speed of 70, the car should move .25 cm, but it moved .234. Very close if you ask me. At 20, it should have been .045 but it was .043, again very close. At the speed of 50, it was supposed to go .172 but it went .154, not as close as the others. At the speed of 60 we tried it three different times and it gave us three different results. It should have been .205 but first we got .189, then .208, and finally .205. The first time it was less than the estimated, but the last two times it was more than the estimated.

Later we got a very long ruler and decided to test it out for longer speeds of time. Instead of a second we did 3 seconds, and the result was at a speed of 120, we were supposed to get 1.1938, but we got 1.05594 cm.


It is safe to say our machine was getting very close numbers to the estimated. Manuelo was very happy with his new vehicle! Getting Ready to Blast Off!
Above you see the car almost ready to blast off! and Connor in the back throwing a thumbs up to show his excitment! The smile on Kevin’s face portrays our emotion for this activity.
The car in movement!
Here it is in action, the picture could not capture because of the speed!
 
Overall this was a fun hands on project 🙂
 
Until Next Time,
xoxo
Victoria